Academic Honesty

Students of the Middle Years Programme at Union Academy are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity.

The members of the faculty are opposed to cheating for the following reasons:

Students who are mature enough to select a difficult and valuable program must also be mature enough to face a low grade when they’ve earned it.

Cheating allows a student to receive the same or better grade than students who have put in the time and effort to master the material. Dishonestly inflated grades ultimately raise the cheater’s grade point, simultaneously lowering the rank of students who study.

Not only does cheating misrepresent a student’s mastery of the subject to parents, it also distorts the perception of curriculum effectiveness and class progress.

The threat of cheating forces the teacher to patrol and sleuth; these are activities that reduce the amount of time he or she has available for productive teaching and course improvement.

The adherents of almost all religions and philosophies believe cheating to be morally wrong.

Cheating includes: Plagiarizing another’s words or ideas (including data downloaded from the internet) in a report, research paper, or extended essay, copying homework or allowing your work to be copied, accepting someone’s work or giving answers, using unauthorized cheat sheets, giving out questions that are on a test, using unauthorized preprogrammed formulas or programs on calculators during tests or quizzes, and using cell phones or unauthorized electronics during tests or quizzes.

Union Academy treats cheating as a serious matter. In addition to losing credit for the assignment, the students will face one or more of the following disciplinary actions according to Polk County Code of Conduct: Parental Assistance, Office Intervention, Detention or Work Detail, In-School Suspension, Out-of-School– Short-Term and Out-of-School– Long-Term.